Classic Era: Comedy Central seasons 1–5
Revival Era:
ABC seasons: 1 | 2
Discovery seasons: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5
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Champion
#6-End Game
Team: OYES Robotics
Team Captain: Nick Mabey
Driver: Jack Barker
Hometown: Auckland, New Zealand
Matches (Season): Tombstone (W/KO), Bloodsport (L/KO), HyperShock (W/KO)
Matches (Championship Tournament): Perfect Phoenix (W/KO), Rotator (W/JD), Shatter! (W/KO), Tantrum (W/KO), Whiplash (W/KO)
- Book Ends: Started and ended the season by throwing a robot out of the arena.
- Came Back Strong: Their loss to Bloodsport exposed multiple points of failure that the team was able to fix for subsequent fights. After that match, it won its next six fights with five knockouts.
- Crazy-Prepared: The team took a page from DUCK!'s playbook this year and designed the bot's weapon and each of its wheels to have their own motor and batteries, allowing them to function independently from each other. Nearly all of its internals are custom-made, and loaded with redundancies that make it much harder to disable than previous seasons.
- Darkhorse Victory: It's one thing to beat Tombstone. It's another to launch him out of the ring in the first episode of the season. Suffice to say, no one saw it coming. Bookended in the final episode, when it tossed Whiplash out of the ring to win the championship.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: Went from missing the tournament in the past two years to winning the whole damn thing.
Runner up
#8-Whiplash
Team: Fast Electric Robots
Team Captain: Jeff Vasquez
Driver: Matt Vasquez
Hometown: Thousand Oaks, California
Matches (Season): SawBlaze (L/KO), Gruff (W/JD), Valkyrie (W/JD)
Matches (Championship Tournament): HUGE (W/JD), Valkyrie (W/JD), Hydra (W/JD), Black Dragon (W/JD), End Game (L/KO)
- Swiss-Army Weapon: In addition to its signature spinner-lifter combo, it has an alternate configuration that replaces the spinner with a plain lifter and wedge, which it used to great effect in both of its fights with Valkyrie.
Semifinals
#5-Black Dragon
Team: Uai!rrior
Team Captain: Gabriel Silveira Teles
Hometown: Itajubá, Minas Gerais, Brazil
Matches (Season): Kraken (W/JD), Claw Viper (W/KO), Copperhead (L/JD)
Matches (Championship Tournament): SlamMow! (W/KO), Tombstone (W/JD), Ribbot (W/JD), Whiplash (L/JD)
- Man on Fire: Its weapon burnt out and caught fire early on against Ribbot. It proceeded to toss Ribbot around the arena while still on fire and survive the full round, winning by decision.
#18-Tantrum
Team: Seems Reasonable
Team Captain and Driver: Aren Hill
Hometown: Mountainview, California
Matches (Season): Valkyrie (L/KO), Atom #94 (W/KO), Gamma 9 (W/KO)
Matches (Championship Tournament): Fusion (W/KO), Bloodsport (W/JD), SawBlaze (W/JD), End Game (L/KO)
- Composite Character: Uses the spinner configuration from the 2019 season on a design that more closely resembles its flipper incarnation from the 2018 season.
- Manipulative Editing: Its bout with Fusion went on slightly longer than what was shown on TV. After Fusion wound up immobilized on top of it, Tantrum spent a minute or so driving around the arena trying to shake it off; eventually the match was paused, the bots were separated, and the already-dead Fusion was properly counted out. The edited version skipped the last minute and started the countdown while the two bots were still stuck together, leaving the rather memetic image of Tantrum wearing Fusion like a hat.
- Mechanically Unusual Fighter: Its unique "puncher" configuration: a vertical spinner mounted on a horizontal track, allowing the bot to spin it up and launch it forward at an opponent.
- Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Copperhead barely beats it out as the smallest bot in the competition. Combined with its insane mobility, this gives it the unique advantage of being able to get underneath its opponents much more easily than a larger bot ever could.
- Took a Level in Badass: And how. While Tantrum was always very mobile, its past two configurations underperformed mainly due to weapons with good ideas, but lacking execution. By combining elements of both previous incarnations, Tantrum evolved into a scrappy Lightning Bruiser that gained more reliable damage output and a deceptive amount of tankiness on top of its already impressive mobility.
Quarterfinals
#1-Hydra
Team: Team Whyachi
Team Captain and Driver: Jake Ewert
Hometown: Dorchester, Wisconsin
Matches (Season): Witch Doctor (W/JD), HUGE (W/JD), Uppercut (W/JD)
Matches (Championship Tournament): HyperShock (W/KO), Gigabyte (W/JD), Whiplash (L/JD)
- At Arm's Length: How to best sum up its strategy against HUGE. Affixing a giant bike rack to the bot and keeping HUGE from getting close enough to hit it. The team implied that the bike rack would be modified into an anti-Gigabyte attachment, but this wound up being a bit of trolling on the part of Team Whyachi.
- Face–Heel Turn: With Tombstone being portrayed more positively this year, Hydra has eagerly taken up the role as the 'villain' of the roster.
#7-SawBlaze
Team: Team SawBlaze
Team Captain and Driver: Jamison Go
Hometown: Cambridge, Massachusetts
Matches (Season): Whiplash (W/KO), Uppercut (L/KO), Rusty (W/JD)
Matches (Championship Tournament): Kraken (W/JD), Witch Doctor (W/KO), Tantrum (L/JD)
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Could have left Rusty tipped over multiple times, but pushed it back upright and continued hacking away at it with its saw, if only to see if the hapless bot could keep going afterwards (which, to Rusty's credit, it could).
- Graceful Loser: Jamison Go can be seen clapping politely after getting counted out against Uppercut.
- Man on Fire: Got popped in its flamethrower fuel tank during its fight with Uppercut, producing a box rattling explosion.
- Punny Name: Its name is a pun on the word "sawblades", referring to both its cutting disc and flamethrower weapons.
#19-Shatter!
Team: Bots FC
Team Captain and Driver: Adam Wrigley
Hometown: Brooklyn, New York
Matches (Season): Ghost Raptor (W/KO), Malice (L/JD), Captain Shrederator (W/JD)
Matches (Championship Tournament): Lock-Jaw (W/KO), Mammoth (W/JD), End Game (L/KO)
- Chrome Champion: Like Hydra last year, Shatter! is decked out in a chromatic paint scheme that changes colors (blue, aqua, pink or purple) depending on the amount of light that reflects off its surface and which angle it is viewed from.
- Confusion Fu: The only robot in the field that uses "omni-wheels", special wheels that allow it to move while facing in any direction. This makes its movement much more unpredictable compared to most robots.
- Didn't Need Those Anyway!: Shatter uses thick layers of plastic as ablative armor, which is designed to come apart when struck to dissipate the energy of their opponents' weaponry.
- The ablative armour should not be confused
◊ with the colourful plastic triangles layered on top. These are purely decorative and have a tendency to fall off when it fires its own weapon, or even when it's just driving around normally.
- The ablative armour should not be confused
- Jack of All Stats: Doesn't reach beta's Lightning Bruiser status, but is still decently powerful and sturdy in its own right, with its special "omni-wheels" adding a layer of unpredictability to it otherwise average mobility.
- Scissors Cuts Rock: Tore large chunks out of Lock-Jaw's armor that was specifically added to protect against its hammer strikes.
#20-Ribbot
Team: Team Ribbot
Team Captain and Driver: David Jin
Hometown: Worchester, Massachusetts
Matches (Season): Tracer (W/KO), MadCatter (L/JD), Axolotl (W/KO)
Matches (Championship Tournament): Beta (W/KO), Uppercut (W/KO), Black Dragon (L/JD)
- Death or Glory Attack: Threw itself headfirst into Uppercut, ultimately losing its front wheels and frog head in the process. And won.
Round of 16
#2-Bloodsport
Team: Bots 'n' Stuff Robotics
Team Captain: Justin Marple
Hometown: Cambridge, Massachusetts
Matches (Season): Skorpios (W/KO), End Game (W/KO), Chronos (W/JD)
Matches (Championship Tournament): Gruff (W/JD), Tantrum (L/JD)
Matches (Beta Tournament): Aegis (W/KO), HiJinx (W/KO), Lock-Jaw (L/JD)
- Darker and Edgier: Now sports a vicious looking paintjob that gives it the appearance of being splattered in enemy blood.
- New and Improved: The old Bloodsport this is not. Gone is the basic, circular bar spinner it was in past seasons. Now it's a sturdy square bot with a vicious spinner blade sitting atop it.
- Spin to Deflect Stuff: Its new weapon in a nutshell. Designed to both rip enemy bots apart, and serve as a spinning shield from bots with top down weapons, such as its victory against Skorpios.
- Wrecked Weapon: One arm of its triple blade snapped off at the start of its bout with Gruff. While the blade itself could spin, it was noticeably off-balance when it did so, forcing the team to switch tactics and eke out a narrow win as a control bot. Another one of its blades chipped off in a similar manner in its loss to Lock-Jaw.
#4-Uppercut
Team: Uppercut
Team Captain: Alex Hattori
Hometown: Cambridge, Massachusetts
Matches (Season): Gemini (W/KO), SawBlaze (W/KO), Hydra (L/JD)
Matches (Championship Tournament): HiJinx (W/KO), Ribbot (L/KO)
- Attack Its Weak Point: Struck SawBlaze in the fuel tank for its flamethrower, sending the bot exploding in flame.
- Punched Across the Room: Hit one of the Gemini bots so hard it cleared the whole BattleBox and landed in a Ring Out behind the far wall. HiJinx met a similar fate in the Round of 32.
#9-Valkyrie
Team: Questionable Designs
Team Captain: Leanne Cushing
Driver: Frederick Moore
Hometown: Somerville, Massachusetts
Matches (Season): Tantrum (W/KO), Rotator (W/JD), Whiplash (L/JD)
Matches (Championship Tournament): SubZero (W/KO), Whiplash (L/JD)
Matches (Witch Doctor Tournament): Extinguisher (W/KO), SubZero (L/KO)
- I Call It "Vera": Has names for each of the seven blades the team brought to the tournament: Glory, Sweet Caroline, Sour Caroline, Dr. Teeth, Sr. Teeth, Mr. Cavity, and Sonic the Wedgehog.
#17-Gigabyte
Team: Robotic Death Company
Team Captain: John Mladenik
Hometown: Oceanside, California
Matches (Season): Copperhead (L/KO), Extinguisher (W/KO), Claw Viper (W/KO)
Matches (Championship Tournament): Malice (W/KO), Hydra (L/JD)
Matches (S.O.W. Tournament): GRABOT (W/KO), Big Dill (W/KO), Copperhead (W/KO), Son of Whyachi (W/KO)
- The Bus Came Back: Veteran bot driver Matt Maxham joined the team this year as Gigabyte's weapon operator, his first appearance since the 2016 season with Stinger.
- Logical Weakness: The self-righting bar on the top of Gigabyte also serves as its directional indicator, since it's a full-body circular spinner with no discernible front. When Copperhead broke it off, it became much more difficult to steer.
#21-Tombstone
Team: Hardcore Robotics
Team Captain and Driver: Ray Billings
Hometown: Placerville, California
Matches (Season): End Game (L/KO), Slap Box (W/KO), Skorpios (L/KO)
Matches (Championship Tournament): MadCatter (W/KO), Black Dragon (L/JD)
Matches (Tombstone Tournament): Gruff (W/KO)
-
Badass Decay: Lost its first fight in less than 30 seconds, and finished the season with a 2-3 record, whereas previous seasons saw it go undefeated. - Camera Abuse: In its fight with Slap Box, it hurled a piece of debris at a camera, shattering the lens.
- Crippling Overspecialization: While its dreaded spinner is as powerful as ever, Tombstone's entire battle strategy basically hinges on said spinner staying active long enough to take out its opponent before it sustains much damage itself. If the spinner breaks or loses power, Tombstone will either be at the mercy of an opponent's active weapon or be ill-suited to try to win a shoving match due to a lack of armor or wedges on the bot. While this could arguably apply to Tombstone in previous years, this is the first year where said design became an actual problem, particularly in its fight against Black Dragon.
- Heel–Face Turn: Formerly The Dreaded of the entire roster for the last 4 seasons, a lot more focus has been placed this season on Ray's mentoring relationship with Atom #94 and Perfect Phoenix.
#22-Rotator
Team: Team Revolution
Team Captain and Driver: Victor Soto
Hometown: Miami, Florida
Matches (Season): Beta (L/JD), Valkyrie (L/JD), Big Dill (W/KO)
Matches (Championship Tournament): JackPot (W/KO), End Game (L/JD)
Matches (Bronco Tournament): Axolotl (W/KO), Captain Shrederator (W/JD), MadCatter (W/KO), Bronco (W/JD)
- Artifact Title: While the bot can still use its signature "double-sided" configuration, it was phased out this year in favor of a more balanced approach with a single spinner.
- The Backwards Я: Not used in its traditional sense, but the second "R" in ROTATOR's name is written backwards on the bot itself so the logo could be horizontally symmetrical.
- Caps Lock: Its name is officially "ROTATOR," in all capital letters, presumably to reflect its palindromic nature.
- The Dreaded: In a rather specific example, Axolotl's captain admitted that they were worried about going against ROTATOR.
- Fun with Palindromes: ROTATOR's name is a palindrome, to reflect the fact that it operates exactly the same when flipped upside-down. This bit of trivia makes up its intro for its battle against Skorpios.
- Mighty Glacier: This version of ROTATOR is very durable on top of its spinner dishing out some solid damage.
- Stance System: Basically Victor Soto's strategy in a nutshell, using the bot's rear wedge or armor to deflect damage before spinning around and retaliating in kind with its own spinner.
#23-Witch Doctor
Team: Team Witch Doctor
Team Captain: Andrea Gellatly
Driver: Mike Gellatly
Hometown: Miami, Florida
Matches (Season): Hydra (L/JD), Kraken (L/JD), SlamMow! (W/KO)
Matches (Championship Tournament): Skorpios (W/JD), SawBlaze (L/KO)
Matches (Witch Doctor Tournament): SubZero (W/KO)
- Chain of Deals: They broke their weapon wheel before fighting SlamMow! and had to go through a version of this to get a new one, getting a sheet of steel from Blacksmith's builder to make the wheel out of, then borrowing Sporkinok's driver's truck so they could transport the steel, then asking Chomp's team to cut the wheel for them since they were one of the few teams with the necessary tools to do it.
- Made of Iron: Was sent into the air countless times and was on fire for a good chunk of the fight, yet was still seemingly fully working at the end of its battle with Hydra.
#30-Mammoth
Team: Team Mammoth
Team Captain and Driver: Rickey Willems
Hometown: Baltimore, Maryland
Matches (Season): HUGE (W/KO), HyperShock (L/KO), Deadlift (W/JD)
Matches (Exhibition): Black Widow (W/KO)
Matches (Championship Tournament): Copperhead (W/JD), Shatter! (L/JD)
Matches (Tombstone Tournament): SMEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE (L/KO)
- Acrofatic: Surprisingly agile for something its size. Pulled off some impressive flips against HUGE and SMEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE, though it wound up flipping over one too many times against the latter and was left floundering on its side.
- Mechanically Unusual Fighter: Basically just a big, rotating seesaw mounted on a frame with some engines and wheels strapped too it. The design has been effective so far though as like with HUGE, not many teams have any real way to counter it.
Round of 32
#3-Copperhead
Team: Caustic Creations
Team Captain and Driver: Zach Goff
Hometown: Loveland, Colorado
Matches (Season): Gigabyte (W/KO), P1 (W/KO), Black Dragon (W/JD)
Matches (Championship Tournament): Mammoth (L/JD)
Matches (S.O.W. Tournament): Chronos (W/KO), Rusty (W/KO), Gigabyte (L/KO)
- Megaton Punch: Managed to hit Gigabyte so hard it blew off Gigabyte's entire casing, killing it on the spot.
- Pint-Sized Powerhouse: The smallest robot in the tournament (just barely smaller than runner-up Tantrum), but still one of the hardest-hitting.
#10-Skorpios
Team: Bot Bash Party
Team Captain and Driver: Zachary Lytle
Hometown: Moraga, California
Matches (Season): Bloodsport (L/KO), Perfect Phoenix (W/KO), Tombstone (W/KO)
Matches (Championship Tournament): Witch Doctor (L/JD)
Matches (Icewave Tournament): Black Widow (W/JD), P1 (W/JD), HyperShock (W/JD), Icewave (W/JD)
#11-JackPot
Team: Vegas Combat Robotics
Team Captain and Driver: Jeff Waters
Hometown: Las Vegas, Nevada
Matches (Season): SubZero (W/KO), Ghost Raptor (W/KO), Lock-Jaw (W/KO)
Matches (Championship Tournament): Rotator (L/KO)
Matches (Tombstone Tournament): Deadlift (L/KO)
- Flipping Helpless: Has a self-righting arm positioned on its side. Deadlift disabled its spinner and tipped it over onto its other side, resulting in a quick knockout.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: In the fight against Rotator, the team elected to remove JackPot's self-righter in favor of a plow that they hoped would allow them to get underneath their opponent. Unfortunately for them, one good hit from Rotator sent them flying into the rails on their heads; with no self-righter, they couldn't jump back into the fray.
#12-MadCatter
Team: Bad Kitty
Team Captain: Martin Mason
Driver: Calvin Iba
Hometown: Pomona, California
Matches (Season): Fusion (W/KO), Ribbot (W/JD), Malice (W/KO)
Matches (Championship Tournament): Tombstone (L/KO)
Matches (Bronco Tournament): Atom #94 (W/KO), Bale Spear (W/KO), Rotator (L/KO)
#13-Beta
Team: Team Hurtz
Team Captains: Gabriel Stroud, John Reid
Driver: John Reid
Hometown: Haslemere, United Kingdom
Matches (Season): Rotator (W/JD), Rusty (W/KO), GRABOT (W/KO)
Matches (Championship Tournament): Ribbot (L/KO)
Matches (Beta Tournament): Lock-Jaw (L/KO)
- Armor Is Useless: Its alternate "mullet" armor, a vertical plate intended to block vertical spinners better than its standard wedge armor, proved ineffective against Ribbot and Lock-Jaw's lower wedges. While the armor itself did hold up, it provided little protection for Beta itself from being thrown around, or for its internal components from being shaken up to the point of immobilizing it or damaging the gas supply for the hammer.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Both of Beta's losses came about as a result of two new things added that didn't work out. Its new magnet system — designed to stick the robot to the metal floor so it could fire the hammer with maximum force without recoil — severely hampered its aggression by preventing Beta from firing the hammer while moving. Likewise, the aforementioned "mullet" armor had no forks or any form of wedge despite being designed to fight vertical spinners; which, keep in mind, heavily use wedges. Both these flaws left Beta helpless against Ribbot and Lock-Jaw, taking away its options to easily get under or hit them.
- Lightning Bruiser: Beta is both very heavily-armored, with its military grade steel front/side plates; and very heavily-armed, with its enormous pneumatic hammer. And yet, it's still fast and agile enough to practically glide around the arena like a racing car.
- Punny Name: As mentioned above, it's pronounced "bee-tah" ("BEAT-ah"), not "bay-tah". That is exactly what it does to its opponents with its massive Hammer.
- Serious Business: John Reid takes timing each hit very seriously. Beta refrained from hitting Rotator for most of their fight because of concerns it could rip off the hammer (fears which were proven true), and didn’t hit Rusty or Grabbot until Beta had them dead to rights. During Robot Wars, John Reid had previously been seen chastising the weapons operator for firing the hammer and missing.
- Sheathe Your Sword: Due to the sheer risk factor involved with firing its new and improved hammer into an overhead spinning bar, Beta defeated Rotator this way; using both its heavily-armored front wedge and more powerful drivetrain to ram and shove it into the walls/hazards without firing off a single shot, eventually winning by decision on aggression and strategy. The plan was to use the hammer if Rotator got turned over from being rammed, but it didn't happen.
#14-Lock-Jaw
Team: Mutant Robots
Team Captain and Driver: Donald Hutson
Hometown: San Diego, California
Matches (Season): Captain Shredderator (W/KO), Big Dill (W/JD), JackPot (L/KO)
Matches (Championship Tournament): Shatter! (L/KO)
Matches (Beta Tournament): Axe Backwards (W/KO), Fusion (W/KO), Bloodsport (W/JD), Beta (W/KO)
- Long Runner: Donald Hutson and Mutant Robots are the longest continuously competing team and driver in BattleBots, having first appeared in the 1999 Long Beach pay-per-view. They've been part of every televised season ever since.
#15-Fusion
Team: Team Whyachi
Team Captain and Driver: Reese Ewert
Hometown: Dorchester, Wisconsin
Matches (Season): MadCatter (L/KO), Aegis (W/KO), War? EZ! (W/KO)
Matches (Championship Tournament): Tantrum (L/KO)
Matches (Beta Tournament): Rampage (W/KO), Lock-Jaw (L/KO)
- Dual Wielding: The first bot to run a vertical and horizontal spinner at the same time.
- Explosive Overclocking: Being a relatively compact bot with two high-powered weapons, it has a tendency to overheat. It caught fire in all of its losses this season, including a memorable loss to Tantrum where its internal speed controller outright popped.
#16-Malice
Team: Team Malice
Team Captain: Adrian "Bunny" Sauriol
Drivers: David Rush, David Liaw
Hometown: San Jose, California
Matches (Season): Axe Backwards (W/KO), Shatter! (W/JD), MadCatter (L/KO)
Matches (Championship Tournament): Gigabyte (L/KO)
Matches (Witch Doctor Tournament): Tracer (W/KO), HUGE (W/JD), SubZero (L/KO)
- Flipping Helpless: Lost to MadCatter when it got tipped up onto its rear surface, unable to rock either backwards or forwards, and was counted out. The team made a modification to prevent it in future matches, but due to an unforeseen Failsafe Failure, it happened again in its bout with SubZero.
- Hell-Bent for Leather: Bunny and her crew had a distinct biker gang aesthetic that invokes this trope.
- I Call It "Vera": Team Malice refers to its signature red spinner as "Big Red", with its smaller purple spinner being named "Purple Pain".
- Mechanically Unusual Fighter: While the likes of Minotaur and Copperhead have already popularized the use of drum spinners, Malice instead opts for a horizontal drum configuration instead of the usual vertical one.
#24-SubZero
Team: Team XD
Team Captain and Driver: Logan Davis
Hometown: Irving, Texas
Matches (Season): Jackpot (L/KO), GRABOT (W/KO), Sporkinok (W/KO)
Matches (Championship Tournament): Valkyrie (L/KO)
Matches (Witch Doctor Tournament): Pain Train (W/KO), Valkyrie (W/KO), Malice (W/KO), Witch Doctor (L/KO)
- Ass Kicks You: In its first bout against Valkyrie, it affixed a metal wedge to its backside in hopes of breaking its weapon, similar to how Lock-Jaw bested them in 2018. It failed to best them twice, landing a few solid hits before Valkyrie gained the upper hand. While the wedge itself remained intact, the rear segment it was attached to was torn off entirely (and was kept by Valkyrie's team as a Battle Trophy, as shown in their rematch).
- The Band Minus the Face: Jeremy Clarkin has retired from combat robotics, handing the reins over to SubZero's long-time driver, Logan Davis.
#25-HUGE
Team: Team HUGE
Team Captain and Driver: Jonathan Schultz
Hometown: South Windsor, Connecticut
Matches (Season): Mammoth (L/KO), Hydra (L/JD), Kraken (W/JD)
Matches (Championship Tournament): Whiplash (L/JD)
Matches (Witch Doctor Tournament): Slap Box (W/JD), Malice (L/JD)
- Caps Lock: The bot's name is officially "HUGE", written in capital letters because they're, well, bigger than lower-case letters. (Spelling its name in all-caps is also important, as it has a smaller counterpart simply named Huge.)
- Help, I'm Stuck!: Got one of its wheels stuck outside of the arena in its fight against Mammoth, something the team had dreaded ever since they started competing.
- History Repeats: Its 2020 tournament run was largely the same as 2019: eliminated in the first round via loss by decision against Whiplash.
#26-Kraken
Team: CE Robots
Team Captain and Driver: Matthew Spurk
Hometown: Titusville, Florida
Matches (Season): Black Dragon (L/JD), Witch Doctor (W/JD), HUGE (L/JD)
Matches (Championship Tournament): SawBlaze (L/JD)
Matches (Tombstone Tournament): Claw Viper (W/JD), SMEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE (W/JD), Gruff (L/JD)
Matches (S.O.W. Tournament): Rusty (L/JD)
- The Cavalier Years: It just wouldn't be Kraken without Matt Spurk dressing up in pirate garb.
- Difficult, but Awesome: Being a crusher bot, Kraken requires a high amount of precision and careful positioning to get the most out of it. If the upset against Witch Doctor is any indication, Matt Spurk continues to be up to the task.
- Made of Iron: Managed to go the full three minutes against SawBlaze despite taking multiple big hits and losing a wheel.
- Oh, Crap!: Matt Spurk can be heard muttering "Oh my God..." after Rusty tore off the front cover of Kraken.
#27-Perfect Phoenix
Team: Perfect Phoenix
Team Captain: Juli Johnson
Driver: Tyler Nguyen
Hometown: Herndon, Virginia
Matches (Season): Extinguisher (W/KO), Skorpios (L/KO), Atom #94 (W/JD)
Matches (Championship Tournament): End Game (L/KO)
Matches (S.O.W. Tournament): Big Dill (L/KO)
- Charlie Brown from Outta Town: A repainted and slightly upgraded version of Brutality. A robot from Paul Ventimiglia (Bite Force) that he later sold to Ray Billings (Tombstone), who in turn gave it to his son who is competing with it here.
- Flipping Helpless: Lacking a self-righter, this is how it met its end in both of its tournament fights— pinned up on the rails by End Game, and flipped over by Big Dill.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: In its fight with Big Dill, the team attached a shorter bar in hopes of grinding up Big Dill’s underside. However this caused its demise since Big Dill quickly outwedged it, and since the bar was so short, it was unable to reach Big Dill and (after several attempts) Perfect Phoenix was flipped over.
- Legacy Character: The successor to both Brutality (Who won the BattleBots 2009 professional championship) and Green Wave, a robot that competed in the classic series.
- Teen Genius: Driver Tyler Nguyen is just 11 years old.
#28-SlamMow!
Team: Team Mowbot
Team Captain: Craig Danby
Hometown: Raleigh, North Carolina
Matches (Season): Pain Train (W/KO), War? EZ! (W/KO), Witch Doctor (L/KO)
Matches (Championship Tournament): Black Dragon (L/KO)
Matches (Beta Tournament): HiJinx (L/KO)
- Wrestler in All of Us: Pulls out an impressive suplex in its debut battle with Pain Train.
#29-HiJinx
Team: Offbeat Robotics
Team Captain: Jen Herchenroeder
Hometown: Santa Rosa, California
Matches (Season): Claw Viper (L/KO), Tracer (W/KO), Chomp (W/KO)
Matches (Championship Tournament): Uppercut (L/KO)
Matches (Beta Tournament): SlamMow! (W/KO), Bloodsport (L/KO)
- Animal Motifs: Owls. The front of the bot is painted to resemble an owl's face, and Jen was seen carrying an owl plushie into the arena with her on multiple occasions.
-
What Could Have Been: Was originally conceived as a new design for Skorpios. The show executives nixed the idea, but encouraged the team to build the new design and submit it as a separate entry.
#31-Gruff
Team Captain and Driver: Sam McAmis
Hometown: Palm Harbor, Florida
Matches (Season): HyperShock (W/KO), Whiplash (L/JD), Extinguisher (L/KO)
Matches (Championship Tournament): Bloodsport (L/JD)
Matches (Tombstone Tournament): Gemini (W/KO), Deadlift (W/KO), Kraken (W/JD), Tombstone (L/KO)
- Fire-Breathing Weapon: While several bots in the competition have flamethrowers, it's typically viewed as Rule of Cool instead of an effective weapon. Gruff is built to be an exception, and pulled off the rare feat of causing significant damage with a flamethrower at least once (disabling Kraken's crushing jaw by melting a pneumatic line), possibly twice (it likely damaged something in HyperShock's internals, though whether it was a deciding factor in the match is up for debate).
#32-HyperShock
Team: Team HyperShock
Team Captain and Driver: Will Bales
Hometown: Miami, Florida
Matches (Season): Gruff (L/KO), Mammoth (W/KO), End Game (L/KO)
Matches (Championship Tournament): Hydra (L/KO)
Matches (Icewave Tournament): Sporkinok (W/KO), Ghost Raptor (W/KO), Skorpios (L/JD)
- Kick Them While They Are Down: An unintentional case; after toppling Mammoth, its team asked Will to give them one more hit, to see if it could knock Mammoth upright and possibly continue the match. Will did so, and aimed for the large target in the middle of the bot... which happened to be Mammoth's battery box, disabling it entirely.
Did not qualify for postseason
Aegis
Team: Phalanx
Team Captain: Chris Sparzo
Hometown: Fishers, Indiana
Matches (Season): Fusion (L/KO)
Matches (Beta Tournament): Bloodsport (L/KO)
- Armor Is Useless / Crippling Overspecialization: Was boasted to be made of super tough kevlar... which, while effective against pinpoint strikes like hammers or projectiles, is nigh-useless against blades or spinners. Aegis' kevlar shell was shredded like newspaper when Fusion got a hold of it.
- Hell Is That Noise: Gave off a loud metallic sound whenever it tried to fire its flipper against Bloodsport.Chris: What is that godawful sound, Kenny? That's not a BattleBot mating call— like, are other bots gonna start running in there?Kenny: It's calling for help, is what it's doing.
- Improvised Armor: A frame to cover its side and rear against Bloodsport, replacing the side armor that was destroyed by Fusion.
- The Spartan Way: The whole theme of the bot. Designed to look like the famous Spartan shield, and driven by a team named after the military maneuver.
Atom #94
Team: AutoVoltz Robotics
Team Captain: Yash Deshmukh
Hometown: Vadodara, Gujarat, India
Matches (Season): Big Dill (L/JD), Tantrum (L/KO), Perfect Phoenix (L/JD)
Matches (Bronco Tournament): MadCatter (L/KO)
- Help, I'm Stuck!: Got stuck on Big Dill's lifting fork, sending the fight to the judges when they couldn't be separated.
Axe Backwards
Team: Axe Backwards
Team Captain and Driver: Kurt Durjan
Hometown: Port Saint Lucie, Florida
Matches (Season): Malice (L/KO), Captain Shrederator (L/KO)
Matches (Beta Tournament): Lock-Jaw (L/KO)
- One-Hit Kill: On the receiving end, as the bot all but exploded after one solid hit from Malice.
- Punny Name: A play on the term "ass backwards", which almost certainly couldn't be used by itself as a name.
Axolotl
Team: Uh-Oh Robotics
Team Captain: Alon Belkin
Hometown: Northridge, California
Matches (Season): War? EZ! (L/KO), Ribbot (L/KO)
Matches (Bronco Tournament): Rotator (L/KO)
Bale Spear
Team: Forge and Farm Combat Robots
Team Captain: Earl B. Pancoast III
Hometown: Salem, New Jersey
Matches (Season): Deadlift (L/KO), Tracer (L/KO)
Matches (Bronco Tournament): Chomp (W/KO), MadCatter (L/KO)
- Attack Its Weak Point: How it scored a quick knockout against Chomp, by piercing its flamethrower's fuel line with a well-placed jab. When Chomp tried to light up its weapon, it lit itself on fire instead.
Big Dill
Team: Team Food Fight
Team Captain: Emmanuel Carrillo
Hometown: Seattle, Washington
Matches (Season): Atom #94 (W/JD), Lock-Jaw (L/JD), Rotator (L/KO)
Matches (S.O.W. Tournament): Perfect Phoenix (W/KO), Gigabyte (L/KO)
- Help, I'm Stuck!: Got its lifting fork stuck in Atom #94 so completely they couldn't separate them, sending the match to the judges.
- The Swear Jar: Chris and Kenny had a "cliché jar" at the ready for most of the season, and it was featured prominently in Big Dill's debut.Chris: How 'bout the strength of the Big Dill? He really is a big deal! (puts a coin in the jar) There! I'm donating!Kenny: You could say [Atom 94]'s in a pickle, Chris. (Chris hands him the jar) Thank you.
Black Widow
Team: Black Widow
Team Captain: Herrick Henzel
Hometown: Newport, New York
Matches (Season): Rampage (W/JD)
Matches (Icewave Tournament): Skorpios (L/JD)
Matches (Exhibition): Mammoth (L/KO)
- The Ghost: Black Widow was one of three bots competing in the main season (along with Deadlift and Rampage) where none of their fights were shown. However, unlike Deadlift, none of Black Widow's fights were even mentioned.
- Joke Weapon: Its actual weapon is its front wedge and spinner, but will start its matches by firing off a volley of Silly String from its back.
Captain Shrederator
Team: Team LOGICOM
Team Captain: Brian Nave
Hometown: Ormond Beach, Florida
Matches (Season): Lock-Jaw (L/KO), Axe Backwards (W/KO), Shatter! (L/JD)
Matches (Bronco Tournament): Sharko (W/KO), Rotator (L/JD)
- Captain Patriotic: With its resemblance to Captain America's shield, this is a given.
- Failsafe Failure: In its win against Axe Backwards. After the match, the team was unable to remotely shut off its spinner, and had to wait up to forty minutes for its batteries to run out of power so they could safely remove it from the arena.
- Spectacular Spinning: A powerful full-body spinner.
- Took a Level in Badass: Much sturdier than in previous seasons, where it lost nearly every match by KO. Between the regular season and Bounty Hunters, its only knockout loss in 2020 was against Lock-Jaw.
- Wearing a Flag on Your Head: Has an American flag pattern on its top.
Chomp
Team: The Machine Corps
Team Captain: Zoe Stephenson
Hometown: Seattle, Washington
Matches (Season): Gamma 9 (W/JD), Ghost Raptor (L/KO), HiJinx (L/KO)
Matches (Bronco Tournament): Bale Spear (L/KO)
- Hoist by Their Own Petard:
- The protective skirt that guards Chomp's legs can also immobilize them if it gets pushed in hard enough. HiJinx was happy to demonstrate.
- Chomp's secondary weapon, a flamethrower, led to its catastrophic defeat when Bale Spear pierced a fuel line with its spear and set the whole bot ablaze.
- Mechanically Unusual Class: This new version of Chomp is a walker, a form of locomotion that has mostly fallen on the wayside in modern robot combat due to the sheer complexity involved. To compensate for this complexity, walker robots are given twice the weight allowance of wheeled and tracked robots, 500 pounds to the 250 pounds robots with more conventional drive systems are allowed.
- Mighty Glacier: Chomp is huge, weighing twice as much as a wheeled Battlebot due to the different weight restrictions for walkers, and its hammer has enough power to still cause it to jump off the ground, but its walker-style propulsion makes it one of the slowest bots to ever compete. The hammer's turret is designed to account for this, however.
- Spectacular Spinning: The entire axe mechanism is mounted on a turntable, not unlike a tank's turret. It rotates very quickly, allowing Chomp to attack opponents from every direction.
- Technology Porn: Even for Battlebots standards, the sheer complexity and intricacy of Chomp's engineering — from the multi-legged walking system to the hammer setup — is nothing short of seriously impressive.
Chronos
Team: Team Chronos
Team Captain: Jerry Serafin
Hometown: Gardena, California
Matches (Season): P1 (L/KO), Bloodsport (L/JD)
Matches (S.O.W. Tournament): Copperhead (L/KO)
Claw Viper
Team: Team Bad Ideas
Team Captain: Kevin Milczewski
Hometown: Seattle, Washington
Matches (Season): HiJinx (W/KO), Black Dragon (L/KO), Gigabyte (L/KO)
Matches (Tombstone Tournament): Kraken (L/JD)
Deadlift
Team: RoboGym Robotics
Team Captain: Ryan Shulski
Hometown: Indianapolis, Indiana
Matches (Season): Bale Spear (W/KO), Mammoth (L/JD)
Matches (Icewave Tournament): Ghost Raptor (L/KO)
Matches (Tombstone Tournament): JackPot (W/KO), Gruff (L/KO)
- Born Unlucky: Had an incredibly unlucky breakdown in its Tombstone Tournament bout against Gruff, dying almost on its own late on into the fight when it had been dominating Gruff for most of it.
- Fire-Breathing Weapon: Had a flamethrower hidden underneath its lifting arm.
- The Ghost: Deadlift was one of three bots competing in the main season (along with Black Widow and Rampage) where none of their fights were shown. However, two of Deadlift's fights (a win against Bale Spear and a loss against Mammoth) were mentioned, which is more than can be said for the other two.
- Punny Name: Its name is a pun on three things; referencing its offensive capabilities — from the lifting arm weapon and its high torque — the weightlifting exercise of the same name, and the fact that the bot itself is operated by a team of bodybuilders.
Extinguisher
Team: Quicksilver Robotics
Team Captain and Driver: John Flaacke IV
Hometown: Tampa, Florida
Matches (Season): Perfect Phoenix (L/KO), Gigabyte (L/KO), Gruff (W/KO)
Matches (Witch Doctor Tournament): Valkyrie (L/KO)
One-Hit Kill: On the receiving end from Perfect Phoenix.
Gamma 9
Team: Gamma Brigade
Team Captain: Curtis Nemeth
Hometown: Huntington Beach, California
Matches (Season): Chomp (L/JD), Tantrum (L/KO)
Gemini
Team: Gemini
Team Captain: Ace Shelander
Hometown: Joshua Tree, California
Matches (Season): Uppercut (L/KO)
Matches (Tombstone Tournament): Gruff (L/KO)
- Ludicrous Gibs: After the first Gemini bot was sent flying into the screws, Uppercut proceeded to shatter the other bot, scattering debris across the arena.
- Mechanically Unusual Class: Rather than being a single spinner bot, it's two identical half-sized spinner bots. However, only one bot was sent into the arena against Gruff, opting for heavier armor instead (two armored bots would have exceeded the weight limit).
- Punched Across the Room: Uppercut hit one of them so hard it cleared the whole BattleBox and landed in a Ring Out behind the far wall.
- Put on a Bus: Their only televised match was against Uppercut, who horrifically curbstomped them and Gemini never appeared in another episode.
- This Is Gonna Suck: The child piloting half of Gemini responded to the destruction of the second bot with, "Well, we're screwed, thank you!"
Ghost Raptor
Team: Team Raptor
Team Captain and Driver: Chuck Pitzer
Hometown: San Jose, California
Matches (Season): Shatter! (L/KO), JackPot (L/KO), Chomp (W/KO)
Matches (Icewave Tournament): Deadlift (W/KO), HyperShock (L/KO)
- The Bus Came Back: Chuck Pitzer and Team Raptor took a two season break from BattleBots before returning for this one. Before that break, they had otherwise perfect attendance, having competed in every Comedy Central season and both ABC seasons.
- Wrecked Weapon: Lost its blade quickly against Shatter!, and again against JackPot. The weapon also gave out against Deadlift and HyperShock; the bot managed to endure long enough to wear Deadlift out and win by KO, but wasn't so lucky the next time.
GRABOT
Team: Team DaStroy
Team Captain: Ben Davidson
Hometown: Sheboygan, Wisconsin
Matches (Season): SubZero (L/KO), Beta (L/KO)
Matches (S.O.W. Tournament): Gigabyte (L/KO)
- Joke Weapon: Ostensibly a grappler bot, but its claws wound up being too small and unwieldy to ever actually grab anything, leaving it with no real method of attack.
- One-Hit Kill: Its fate against Gigabyte.
P1
Team: Aberrant Robotics
Team Captain: Brandon Zalinsky
Hometown: Hudson, New Hampshire
Matches (Season): Chronos (W/KO), Copperhead (L/KO), SMEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE (W/KO)
Matches (Icewave Tournament): Tracer (W/JD), Skorpios (L/JD)
- Dude, Where's My Respect?: The only 2-1 bot that didn't make the Top 32, to the annoyance of many fans.
- Wrestler in All of Us: Given SMEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE's odd shape, many bots would have trouble lifting it off the ground, let alone flipping it over. P1 managed to get underneath its wedge, hoist it up like a barbell, and carry it around the arena before slamming it into the walls.
Pain Train
Team: Team Shreddit
Team Captain: Evan Arias
Hometown: Staten Island, New York
Matches (Season): SlamMow! (L/KO), SMEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE (W/JD)
Matches (Witch Doctor Tournament): SubZero (L/KO)
Rampage
Team: Team X
Team Captain: Melaina Knox
Hometown: Port St. Joe, Florida
Matches (Season): Black Widow (L/JD)
Matches (Beta Tournament): Fusion (L/KO)
- The Ghost: Rampage was one of three bots competing in the main season (along with Black Widow and Deadlift) where none of their fights were shown. However, unlike Deadlift, none of Rampage's fights were even mentioned. Since it appeared late in Bounty Hunters, this lead to many fans joking that the robot actually didn’t exist.
Rusty
Team: Iron Force
Team Captain: David Eaton
Hometown: Antioch, Illinois
Matches (Season): Sporkinok (W/KO), Beta (L/KO), SawBlaze (L/JD)
Matches (S.O.W. Tournament): Kraken (W/JD), Copperhead (L/KO)
- Attack Its Weak Point: Eaton's reasoning for using an overhead drill: with so many bots focused on getting underneath each other and not devoting as much protection to their top, there's a potential opening for Rusty to get a drill above them and hit something important. Despite looking ineffective, it seemingly did something to Sporkinok that disabled its drive system, and later dealt some impressive damage to Kraken's head.
- Crowd Chant: Managing to endure a full three minutes against SawBlaze, and still be drivable afterwards, earned Rusty a standing ovation from the other teams in attendance.
- Giant Scrap Robot: Literally in that it's built mostly from junk the team captain had lying around his farm.
- Mechanically Unusual Fighter: An awkwardly-shaped bot that uses a pneumatic drill, a weapon type that has long since been phased out of the sport for being ineffective, mounted on an overhead arm.
- Tear Off Your Face: How it won a unanimous decision against Kraken.
- Underestimating Badassery: Sure, the clunky-looking and vaguely adorable scrap bot may look unassuming, but it's still put up some impressive fights. Between tanking a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown from SawBlaze and tearing off Kraken's armor, there's a reason why the scrap bot took Rookie of the Year honors.
Sharkoprion (Sharko)
Team: Aquatic Machine Force
Team Captain: Edward Robinson
Hometown: Sonora High Desert
Matches (Season): SMEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE (L/JD), Slap Box (L/KO)
Matches (Bronco Tournament): Captain Shrederator (L/KO)
- End of an Era: Ed Robinson was forced to sell Sharko in order to afford to make the tournament, making the 2020 season this for Robinson's ownership of the bot.
- Graceful Loser: Robinson took his loss against Slap Box in great stride, enthusiastically complimenting his opponent after the match and raving about its "flaming suplex" in a post-match interview.
Slap Box
Team: Team Already Broke
Team Captain: Bryce Yankauskas
Hometown: Knox, Indiana
Matches (Season): Tombstone (L/KO), Sharko (W/KO)
Matches (Witch Doctor Tournament): HUGE (L/JD)
- Fire-Breathing Weapon: Has a flamethrower built into its lifter arm, which it was happy to demonstrate against Sharko.
- New Meat: A new bot with the misfortune of going up against Tombstone for its debut match.
SMEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
Team: Team SMEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
Team Captain: Joseph Fabiani
Hometown: New York City, New York
Matches (Season): Sharko (W/JD), Pain Train (L/JD), P1 (L/KO)
Matches (Tombstone Tournament): Mammoth (W/KO), Kraken (L/JD)
- Lethal Joke Character: You wouldn't think that a battlebot literally called SMEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE would be a force to be reckoned with in the ring, but it has its fair share of victories.
- Mechanically Unusual Fighter: It's a massive articulated wedge fifteen feet wide, designed to wrap around opponents so that the bar spinners on its sides swing into them and hit them.
- Overly Long Name: Played for Laughs in that the number of E's in the name vary wildly. The presenters also tend to go along with it by drawing out the "E" sound for a few seconds every time the bot is mentioned.
- Stone Wall: Seeing as how its main method of damage is punishing reckless attack tactics from its opponents, this is practically a given. Its wedge is comprised of segmented chunks of UHMW plastic (the same material that HUGE's wheels are made of) held together by metal springs to let it snap back into place. It says something about its survivability when its only loss via KO was when P1 flipped it into the screws in such a way that it couldn't self-right itself.
Sporkinok
Team: PRIDE
Team Captain: Lilith Specht
Hometown: Orlando, Florida
Matches (Season): Rusty (L/KO), SubZero (L/KO)
Matches (Icewave Tournament): HyperShock (L/KO)
- Shout-Out: Named after the Beast Wars character Scorponok.
- Wearing a Flag on Your Head: The Trans Flag to be precise, painted to resemble it while its driver wears it like a cape.
Tracer
Team: KYMERA
Team Captain: Jason Woods
Hometown: Sacramento, California
Matches (Season): Ribbot (L/KO), HiJinx (L/KO), Bale Spear (W/KO)
Matches (Icewave Tournament): P1 (L/JD)
Matches (Witch Doctor Tournament): Malice (L/KO)
War? EZ!
Team: Team War? EZ!
Team Captain: Jonathan Juarez
Hometown: Houston, Texas
Matches (Season): Axolotl (W/KO), SlamMow! (L/KO), Fusion (L/KO)
Did not compete in regular season
Bronco
Team: Inertia Labs
Team Captains: Reason Bradley, Alexander Rose
Hometown: Sausalito, California
Matches (Bronco Tournament): Rotator (L/JD)
- Unexpected Character: Didn't participate in the main tournament, but served as the "bounty" fight for the first Bounty Hunters side tournament.
Icewave
Team: Team Icewave
Team Captain: Marc DeVidts
Hometown: Burlingame, California
Matches (Icewave Tournament): Skorpios (L/JD)
- Unexpected Character: Like Bronco and Son of Whyachi, did not participate in the main event but did make an appearance in Bounty Hunters.
- History Repeats: In the bounty battle, it once again loses to Skorpios due to being too slow to get far enough away to properly spin up its weapon.
Son Of Whyachi
Team: Team Whyachi
Team Captain: Jake Ewert
Hometown: Dorchester, Wisconsin
Matches (S.O.W. Tournament): Gigabyte (L/KO)
- 10-Minute Retirement: Was officially retired after the 2019 season, but had its swan song as a Bounty Hunters boss.
- Unexpected Character: Like Bronco and Icewave, did not participate in the main event but did make an appearance in Bounty Hunters.
